Thai food

This was our first meal in Thailand. I just had to get the pad Thai. I was interested in knowing how different U.S. Thai food is from real Thai food. What we discovered is that there are few differences! Besides the side of MSG, and the whole prawns napping on top it tasted the same as the States.  It was delicious!

I also had to immediately get the Tom yum, since it is another favorite of mine. Tom yum is soup with lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, veggies and coconut milk. It seems as though Thai restaurants in the States are holding true to traditional Thai food.   :)

Spicy spaghetti with dried sweet basil is an interesting dish. The flavor was great but the texture was a little strange. I have never had large pieces of dried anything in pasta.

We ordered Pad khee mao (drunken noodles) with vegetables at a restaurant called Nooddi. (Pronounced 'nude-ey'??)  This dish is spicy but the vegetables tend to cool off the fire, oh, and the beer works well too.

This noodle dish wasn't on the menu. I told them I wanted noodles and vegetables and this is what they brought me. I was not disappointed.

I kept seeing 'pad Thai in an omellete' on menus, and eventually caved in. I couldn't quite picture what it would look like, or taste like.

Instead of the egg being inside the dish (like traditional pad Thai) it was outside. It was definitely more filling!

Som tam (papaya salad) is made with long, thin slices of papaya, lime, peanuts, dried shrimp, and (like most dishes we ate) fish sauce. I could have done without the dried shrimp...

When in Chinatown... eat Chinese! We found this popular restaurant while exploring the streets.  A man with a French accent working the door convinced us the food was good. (A french guy working for a Chinese restaurant in Thailand. Sure, why not?)

We started with dim sum and fried crab.

For a main course we had 'Hong Kong fried noodles with seafood'. The food was great, but I personally would like to see less legs and heads in my food.

In the fishing village of Don Hoi Lod we watched crab walking on the sand at low tide while we enjoyed some more Tom yum soup.

Once again, LOVED the flavor BUT would enjoy less body parts attempting an escape from my soup while I eat.  :)

Fred ordered the fried prawns a few times but eventually gave up the dish. He just couldn't figure out how to eat them properly. Shrimp are much less work!

On the dive boat breakfast was sweet rice with custard wrapped in banana leaves (I think I ate 3!), Thai donuts with sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top (I want to make this at home), and bananas.

While in Cambodia we ate the most amazing Vietnamese food. The fried spring rolls were full of spices and veggies, including potatoes, and were absolutely incredible.

We ordered more coconut milk and veggie soup with rice. Every bite was mouth watering.

The traditional Cambodia dish amok (above) is fish with coconut sauce steamed in banana leaves. The fish is extremely moist and flavorful.  I love coconut milk. Mmm mmm.

After meals in Cambodia we were brought fresh cut mangoes which were perfectly ripe. 

Near our hotel in Bangkok was a very popular (with the Italians and other tourists) Italian food restaurant. We got pizza one night, and this veggie calzone another night. I think the calzone was 3$.

There are authentic Indian food restaurants all over Thailand.

The naan and palak paneer was a tasty change from the local Thai food.

We had about 4 days left in our trip when Fred had to indulge in some Mexican food. Fred Sr. recommended this restaurant to us. It was not like any Mexican food I have had before, although it delicious. It was just a different style, lots of sweet onions and peppers. It was very savory.

The margaritas in Thailand are not bad at all...

While doing some souvenir shopping in Chiang Mai we stumbled upon a small bistro. The chef/owner overheard Fred speaking with the waiter about ordering a vegetarian breakfast and came over to discuss options (his English was very good and they like to practice). He came up with this egg dish with sauteed mushrooms that Fred thought was "awesome".

I can still taste this yogurt, it was the best I have ever had. The owners of our hotel (Hansaah in Bangkok) make their own yogurt and it is to die for. 

Street food, Thailand

One of the first things Fred and I did when we arrived in Bangkok was go to Chinatown.  I was looking forward to seeing and eating the famous Bangkok street food, and Chinatown was a great place to start. There are vendors lined up selling items out of storefronts, carts, motorcycles, cars, trucks, and stands. Many of the items we did not try because they are meat based, but they still made for some excellent pictures!

 

Cold fruit on a stick is a nice escape from the heat.

Homemade bottled drinks are more refreshing options to cool down.

Two days after our trip began we took a side trip to Don Hoi Lod, a fishing village on the Gulf of Thailand. The small village has rows of seafood restaurants, along with vendors selling food on the street.  It reeked of fish, but we couldn't be happier to be there. We were the only tourists in sight. It is not a major tourist attraction. It is instead full of locals who come here on the weekend to picnic near the water, and buy some inexpensive seafood like clams and prawns.

While in Chiang Mai, Fred's dad (Fred Sr.) and Fred Sr.'s girlfriend (Cherry) took us to their local outdoor market that sets up once a week in the evening. We ate so much food, I felt like I was at the Del Mar Fair (except the food was actually pretty healthy). The above dish is Northern Thailand style noodles. It was SPICY!

Bean filled pastries are popular in Japan. Thailand has food from all over Southeast Asia.

This vendor always had a line, selling shaved ice with ???. You can pick any of the items in the bowls to go underneath the ice, then they top it off with whatever flavor you want. I had to ask their advice as to what to get since none of these items were familiar to me. I still don't know exactly what was in there but it was delicious, or at least some bites were...

While driving up to Chiang Rai with Fred Sr. and Cherry, Cherry told Fred Sr. to quickly pull over. There was a lady with a pot on the other side of the street. She crossed the street with her pot when she saw us and pulled out sicks of bamboo from the pot. The bamboo is then peeled down and inside is sweet sticky rice with beans. It was in interesting treat!